Highlanders Clean-up at Track and Field Regionals

It was a very exciting weekend on campus as we hosted 600 athletes from across Kings-Hants competing in 131 track and field events. Our Kings-Hants district is one of the most competitive in Nova Scotia, with some races coming down to the thousandths of a second.

The top four finishers from each track race and the top five from each field event move on to the Western Region championships where the Highlanders will be back on the Tanna Track and Hermann Field trying to earn a ticket to Sydney, Cape Breton for the provincial championships.

I like to start these (brief) reports with the male and female athletes who really stood out. For the first time, there is a tie in that regard. Kristy Michaud '24 easily proved that she is the fastest young woman in our district as she struck gold in the senior girls 100m, and 200m dash where she broke a 10-year-old district record.

Over on Hermann Field, Lena Falkenberger '24 was trying to stay airborne as long as possible, but came down long enough to find gold in the sand with her first-place finishes in her senior girls triple jump and long jump competitions. Both Lena and Kristy then teamed up in the 4x100m relay along with Frances Aceron '24 and Ava Shearer '24 to collect more gold. Not done yet, in the last event of the meet, the 4x400m relay, the two once again got together with Ava and Anna Fialova '24 and earned their fourth gold medals. Placing fifth in their events and creating a spot for themselves at regionals, Leslie Cuddihy '25 will be throwing the javelin, and Anna will be hopping and skipping more runway in the triple jump. 

 

Those graduating this year were not our only gold medalists. Ali MacLean '27, ran more than twice the length of a rugby pitch and placed first in her intermediate girls 200m race. She also proved competitive in cutting that distance in half as she earned bronze in her 100m dash. Just 6/100ths of a second separated first and second as our intermediate 4x100m relay team of Ali, Natalia Shaw '27, Fedora Asoh '27, and Sara Senior-Smith '26 took home silver. Not happy to just run ¼ of a lap, Ali, Natalia, and Sara decided that 400 is more fun, so they got together with Laura Oulton '27 to earn a bronze medal in their 4x400m relay. Indeed, Natalia enjoys the 400m so much that this was her third 400m of the day. Hours earlier she ran the quarter mile in the preliminary round and then earned bronze in the final round. Laura used her 400m like a sprint as she had just stepped off her third podium appearance of the meet as she took silver in her 1500m run, silver in her 3000m run, and jumped into the regional championships with a fifth-place finish in her high jump. Skye Hussey '26 leaped her way to regionals by placing fifth in the intermediate triple jump.

 

Chelsea James '29 showed by far and away the greatest track range this weekend as she competed in both the shortest event, 80m junior hurdles, and 3000m, the longest event. She then chose a third event, the metric mile of 1500m. Three events and three silver medals for Chelsea! Finishing just off the podium in her 1500m run, but still earning her regional championship stamp was Bethany MacDougall '29 in fourth place. Marlowe Lister Wade '29 was just 5cm from a medal but earned her spot in regionals by placing fifth in her high jump. 

 

It wasn't just the women collecting hardware this weekend. Five sport athlete Harvey Hadley '27 competed in six events over two days and medaled in five of them as he earned silver in his 100m hurdles, silver in the 800m run, bronze in the 1500m run, bronze in long jump, and along with fellow intermediates Emmanuel Adaramodu '26, Marcelo Farias '26, and Jack Warren '26 took away a bronze medal for their 4x400m efforts. Emmanuel also showed that he has straight-line speed when he sprinted to bronze in his 100m dash, and he added a regional qualification by placing fourth in his 200m dash. Not to be done with competing, Emmanuel raced to another bronze with Ezra Choo '26, Ashton Houghton '26 , and Jack Warren '26 in their 4x100m relay. 

 

Saving the best for last like a great 4x400m anchor, Josiah Dosunmu '24 probably ran and jumped more at this meet than any other of his meets as a Highlander, and he pulled it off in silver style as he placed second in his 100m dash, second in his 200m dash and second in high jump. The senior boys 4x100m relay team of Josiah, Jeremy Aigbe '25, David Akinboro '24 , and Alex Graham '25 sped their way to bronze. This same team was partnered for fourth and a regional qualifier in their 4x400m. Jeremy proved that he has springs for legs as he earned a silver medal in his senior long jump competition.  

 

In less than two weeks these great Highlanders will be back on Tanna Track and Hermann Field of throws and jumps to do their best to earn a ticket to Sydney, Cape Breton for the provincial championships. Be sure to come out and cheer on our Highlanders in the Western Region championships on May 24-25!